Browse The Providence Business Directory

Situated on the Providence River and Narragansett Bay, Providence, Rhode Island is the capital of America’s smallest (land mass) state and is one of the original 13 Colonies. The city’s population comprises of 172,459 residents but the greater metropolitan area is home to 1,600,856 people. Roger Williams founded the city in 1636. The name came from his saying the area is ‘God’s Meciful Providence.’ The city is also often called “New England’s Renaissance City” because it has a way of reinventing itself with changing times and industries. The climate is typically New England with cold winters and warm to hot summers.

Once a center of the American Jewelry trade, the city today is still a major jewelry and silver design/manufacturing center, but it is now the service industries that drive the economy: Education (there are seven universities/colleges including Brown University), health care, and finance. Firms such as Textron and GTECH, whose world headquarters are here, lead the high-tech Fortune companies located in Providence. Just open the local business directory and you will find some of the best known technological firms in the country among the lists of healthcare companies.

Providence is rich in parks and gardens, among them Waterplace Park, Roger Williams Park and Prospect Terrace Park. The Rhode Island Convention Center is home to many types of entertainment as well as myriad conventions and meetings. Trinity Repertory Group is a Tony Award winning local theatre company. Veterans Memorial Auditorium is a performing arts center along with such venues as the Providence Performing Arts Center and the Providence Festival Ballet. The historic sites and buildings of Providence and its environs reach back to Revolutionary Days, including The First Baptists Church of America built in 1638. A Rhode Island business directory will guide you to the city’s top attractions.